This company that you may have never heard of has a long history behind it. Samsung’s collaboration with the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) for years was known as LiMo or Linux platform for mobile. LiMo’s name was changed to Tizen in 2011 when Intel joined the project. In 2012, LiMo Foundation changed its name to Tizen Association, and Sprint agreed to become part of the Tizen association. An alpha code called Magnolia was released. Tizen 2.0 is expected to be released this month.
Tizen is likely to be popular among developers because of its robust HTML5 development capabilities. HTML5 is rapidly becoming the top choice among app developers. Apple and Google have demonstrated that getting app developers on board is one of the keys to success.
Phone carriers are likely to prefer Tizen because it offers more flexibility than Android. Android makes it difficult for phone carriers such as Verizon to offer their own services.
As of this writing, Android holds about 70% market share, and iOS holds about 14% market share. Tizen has the potential to take significant market share from both Android and iOS. Since Google generates only a small percent of its revenues from Android, Tizen is not likely to have much impact on Google stock.
Apple is another story. A market share loss of even 2% will hurt Apple stock. Moreover, if Tizen takes off, it will add to the negative perceptions about the future growth prospects of Apple.
We’re keeping a close eye on Tizen as it may have serious implications not only for Apple but also for Research in Motion (RIMM). The implications are for the long-term and not in the very short-term. In the very short-term Apple stock is likely to benefit from abatement of year-end tax related selling. LINK
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